Trey Lucas Mr.

Cooper Composition 1 29 October 2013 Comparative essay

Surveillance and judgment by society, peers and individuals in position of authority has the ability to apply real and/or implied power on those who are affected in both Foucault and Bordos essays shows themes that make this true.

In Susan Bordos essay Beauty (Re) discovers the Male Body surveillance and judgment is being done by both society and peers alike. Her main argument comes mainly from the new advertising strategies being used by major companies, in which male models are used in provocative and seductive ways to sale their products. Bordo herself can testify to the power of the new advertising tactics in her text the muscular grace of Barrys legs took my breath away Studies of advertising context within consumer research are largely derived from cognitive and social psychology. Which apply experimental methods to determine measures of advertising engagements and effectiveness. (Leknath Jayasingle; Mark Ritson 2012) Advertising has the power to persuade consumers in ways thatll influence them to their products.

Bordo also talks about her concept of the gaze where we are observed and judged by peers. The gaze is usually something women have to endure. She says that women eventually learn to accept the looks and play along to please the viewing party. Bordo explains the power of this kind of evaluation from peers in her essay. She explains a time she remembers having a bad day and goes to rent a video. The man behind the counter says she looks good. She says that this comment on her looks changed her whole day and she leaves the store feeling younger, stronger, and more awake. She also says the women can sense when they are going unnoticed, saying it can feel like they dont exist. The gaze has real power over ones feeling good or bad.

Foucaults essay Panopticism revolves around the panoptic mechanism that arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognize immediately. This technique is usually found in places of confinement such as prisons. Each individual is securely confined to a cell from which he is seen from the front by a supervisor but the side walls prevent him from coming in contact with his companions. The individual is seen, but cant see and the invisibility is a guarantee of order. The major effect of the panopticon is to induce, in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. (Foucault 288). The individual must never know when he is being observed, but he must know that at any time he could be which creates a sense of implied power. He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it assumes responsibility for the constraints of power (Foucault 290). From the conscious presence of the eyes of the supervisor, the inmates develop a psychological state of controlling their behavior all the time (S. Afr J. Philos 2012;31). They

develop to become their own masters through a process of self-regulating behavior. The constant threat of the invisible supervisor creates an atmosphere in which prisoners behave appropriately even without being supervised (S. Afr J. Philos 2012:31). The panopticon is no longer just a concept for prisons. Manhattans Chinatown has seen an increase from 13 to 600 security cameras since 1998. (Jan Kietzmann; Ian Angell). Seeing the positive results the system has bug cities are trying to imitate to have the same affect. In contrast to Bordos essay Foucaults Panopticism essay talks about a utopia and how it can be achieved. In contemporary social theory, the panopticon is not just a symbol or an ingenious utopia architectural design, but it has also become an important tool of theorizing modern society and social control (S. Afr. J. Philos. 2012,31). At the end of the 17th century while the plague appeared throughout towns, a strict panoptic system was put in place. Each street was placed under the authority of a syndic, who kept tight surveillance; if he leaves the street he will be put to death. The plague gave rise to rituals of exclusion, which to a certain extent provided the model for and a general form of great confinement, then the plague gave rise to disciplinary projects (Foucault 284). They used these tactics in order to separate the plague affected population from the rest in an attempt to create a utopia. In the 21st century the same thing is being done in the form of prisons trying to keep criminals and those who broke the law from the rest of society. The same is being done in the form of mental asylums taking the mentally insane individuals out of the regular population. Just like in the 17th century authority is used to keep these systems ran. Police plays the role of the syndic who keeps tight surveillance throughout cities and enforces the laws. The judges in court system works like the magistrates where everything is brought to them after it goes through the lower levels of

authority. At the beginning of the lock up of the plague affected town the name, sex and age of everyone would be wrote down including everybodys name in the household. I see a lot of these similarities in the census that we take part in now in the 21st century. We still have systems intact to keep a utopia type of society.